UK’s CMA Raises Concern On Google Privacy Sandbox

According to the CMA report, Google may continue to benefit from user activity data while limiting competitors’ access to the same data.

Google cannot proceed with third-party cookie deprecation until it resolves concerns raised by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The search engine needs to do more to address issues raised around its proposed Privacy Sandbox changes or else it will not be able to deprecate third-party cookies from Chrome in the second half of 2024 as planned.

A spokesperson for the the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said, “In Q1 2024, we will focus on working with Google to resolve the competition concerns we have identified in this report. We are particularly keen on resolving any remaining concerns relating to the design of the Privacy Sandbox tools and to ensure that Google does not use the tools in a way that self-preferences its own advertising services.”

“As part of this, we are also looking to clarify the longer-term governance arrangements for the Privacy Sandbox. We would welcome comments from interested parties on our analysis of the concerns so that we can take these into account in our discussions with Google between now and the Standstill Period,” he added. 

According to the CMA report, Google may continue to benefit from user activity data while limiting competitors’ access to the same data. Google’s ability to control the inclusion of ad tech rivals on this list could advantage its ad tech services. Publishers and advertisers may be less able to effectively identify fraudulent activity.

Next steps. The CMA is working with Google to resolve these issues and will report on the each engine’s progress in its next quarterly update which is due at the end of April. Progress so far. Although the CMA stated that Google still has work to do, the report confirmed that in the last quarter of 2023, the search engine fulfilled its commitments to making competition fairer.